Friday, October 21, 2016

On April 5, 1992, tiny Tivia Smith, 18-months-old, weighing
a meager 17 pounds (normal weight being20.8
to 24.5), was rushed to Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center by her
mother, Tivia Strother. The mother, however, first made sure she had cuts and
bruises on her own body to show off at the hospital to support a concocted
story that the couple, with baby, had been attacked by gang members.

The baby had apparently had been beaten into
unconsciousness.She was immediately
placed on a life support system, yet could not be saved and and was declared
brain-dead and was removed from life support. The official cause of death was “
blunt force trauma.”

Tivia had been conceived through artificial insemination by
Mrs. Stother, 22, whose partner, Lisa (“Kevin”) Smith, 24, gave the child her
last name. The couple were arrested and charged with murder and torture. The
pleaded not guilty. The trial was delayed until January 1995.

Prosecutors charged that the couple had beaten little Tivia “with
belts, shoes and blunt objects, and tortured her with nails.” Deputy Dist.
Atty. Carolyn McNary said “If you could see the pictures of this baby, I wouldn’t
have to explain anything to you.”

On January 24,1995, Strother and Smith were found guilty of first-degree
murder and torture, sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Los Angeles
Superior Court Judge William Pounders commented in his remarks in the
sentencing of the pair that: “The child was no longer a toy they wanted to play
with anymore.